Location
Česko > Ústecký kraj > okres Litoměřice > Terezín > Terezín
Location Details: Central part of the Jewish cemetery in Terezín in the axis of the access road
Coordinates
50.501981, 14.151520
Type
Holocaust monument / memorial, Sculpture, symbolic
Location
Cemetery
Artist / Maker / Company
Josef Lavička (Architecture), Jiří Navrátil (Architecture), Ladislav Chochole (Sculpture)
Whom the Monument Commemorates
Jewish victims
Victims of the Terezín Ghetto
Iconographical Subject
Menorah
Material
Granite
Dimensions
Width: 730 cm
Height: 550 cm (Approx.)
Depth: 150 cm
Commissioned By
Terezín Memorial
Dates
This sculptural dominant of the Jewish cemetery in Terezín consists of three massive semicircles, intersected by a vertical column so that together they form the symbol of a seven-armed candelabrum. The individual parts of the sculpture are assembled from blocks of polished granite from Dolní Požáry.
In 1968, the Terezín Memorial held a conceptual competition to commemorate the history of Terezín and Litoměřice. The winning design by architects Josef Lavička and Jiří Navrátil and sculptor Ladislav Chochole, was only partially materialised in the first half of the 1970s. The new monument in the form of a menorah in the Terezín Jewish cemetery is the largest sculptural landmark of this phase of the transformation of memorial sites. The work on the Jewish cemetery began in April 1969, with the aim of creating "a completely new environment in terms of commemorative, artistic and aesthetic quality". By the summer of 1971, the concrete foundation for the statue was in place, and on 3 September 1972, the architecturally landscaped Jewish Cemetery grounds could be "handed over to the public" in a commemorative ceremony that included a speech by František Fuchs, chairman of the Council of Jewish Religious Communities in Czechoslovakia.
Terezín Memorial, Documentary department, Projects 1967–2009.
Ludmila Chládková, Židovský hřbitov v Terezíně – Der jüdische Friedhof in Theresienstadt – Jewish Cemetery in Terezín, Terezín 2004.
Vojtěch Blodig – Ludmila Chládková – Miroslava Langhamerová, Místa utrpení a hrdinství. Nacistická represivní zařízení v Terezíně a Litoměřicích, Praha 2003.
Jan Munk, 60 let Památníku Terezín – 60 Years of the Terezín Memorial, Praha 2007.
O. Heitlinger, Památník Terezín vypisuje soutěž, Věstník Židovských náboženských obcí v Československu XXX, 1968, No. 2, pp. 4–5.
Miroslav Pávek, Další terezínský krok, Věstník Židovských náboženských obcí v Československu XXX, 1968, No. 12, p. 6.
Miroslav Pávek, Co se děje na Židovském hřbitově v Terezíně?, Věstník Židovských náboženských obcí v Československu XXXI, 1969, No. 6, p. 2.
Tryzna v Terezíně, Věstník Židovských náboženských obcí v Československu XXXIV, 1972, No. 9, pp. 1–2.
Cultural Heritage Monument reg. No. ÚSKP 42645/5-2341 – crematorium and cemeteries
Jakub Hauser
